Nathan Fillion heads to Modern Family — and fans are finally defending against haters

After months of being slammed by Stana Katic fans for rumors that she was fired from Castle because of a long-standing beef with him, Nathan Fillion finally has some loyal fans defending him against haters — and it's all because of Modern Family.

Though Katic's army has undoubtedly cursed Fillion with a Hollywood hex, Fillion will soon return to small screens on Season 8 of the primetime heavy-hitter in a multiple episode arc as "a local weatherman who gets involved with the Dunphys," executive producer Steven Levitan said this week at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, via TVLine.

Fillion fans have been far outnumbered by Katic fans in the wake of her April firing, but his Modern Family announcement actually has us seeing a revival of fans coming out to express their excitement for Fillion's return to TV — and to defend his honor against Castle viewers who have been bashing him.

"So nice to see that bad behavior continues to be rewarded in that town," one TVLine thread commenter wrote in response to Fillion's Mod Fam news, but another fired back, "Bad behavior got fired."

"Let’s get something straight, it backfired in his face!! He’s playing a weather man..hahaha!!!!! We could of had more castle but that’s on him [sic]," wrote another fan, who was met with a ton of opposition, in the form of comments like, "Hmmm… He’s got 8 years as a lead and got booked on a major hit show for a multi-ep arc soon after the end of his show. Yeah, it really backfired on him bad," and "Guess what? Actors 'play' all sorts of roles–it’s called–wait for it–ACTING. Freaking, duh. Man, the haters will jump on anything. Got to love the continual sour grapes from the whiners. SMDH [sic]."

The haters have been out in full force since Katic's firing, but this is more or less the first time we've seen Fillion fans come out in droves to support him. Is his scheduled Modern Family appearance the tipping point for Fillion getting back in the good graces of all Castle fans? Only time will tell.